


I Promise

by WritingIsFromTheHeart



Category: iCarly
Genre: Hurt-Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-20
Updated: 2010-10-27
Packaged: 2013-08-07 14:22:45
Rating: K+
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,001
Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
Story URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4877942/1/
Author URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1739918/WritingIsFromTheHeart
Summary: What sucks is that now I know all those stupid clichés are right. You really don't know what you have until it's gone. Be careful what you say to people cause it could be the last thing you get to say to them. And yada yada yada… I'll find u Carls. Seddie





	1. Yelling

Yelling

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"Sam, please this isn't your fault."

"Yes, it is! I fought with her right before and now she's been taken and we can't find her. Oh god Freddie what are we gonna do? I can't lose her, she's all I have." I can't take it anymore. I break down into tears, clutching on to Freddie for dear life. Don't worry Carly, I'll find you. No matter what, I promise.

48 HOURS EARLIER

"You know what Sam!?" Freddie yells back. He was never good at comebacks. He's such a dork.

"What nerd!?!" I smirk as I see him search his brain for a good response.

"Well…Urgggg…" He stutters.

"Well…Urgggg…" I mock.

"You are so rude, _Samantha_." Freddie sat there smiling. He thought he had me, like he won; well he didn't. I leaned over the table and dumped his half-eaten plate of spaghetti on his head and for the finishing touch poured his peppi-cola on him too.

"SAM!" Carly yells.

"What? He asked for it!" Carly runs over to the sink and grabs a towel for Freddie. Freddie looks angry now.

"That's it!" Freddie shouts, "I'm so sick of you insulting me, hurting me, and throwing random things at me!"

"Freddie, I know Sam got a _little_ out of hand…" Carly tried to calm him down.

" A LITTLE!" Freddie says. Whatever, he'll get over it. He always does.

"I'm going home to clean up," Freddie says while walking out the door. I laugh, he's known me for a while, he shouldn't be too surprised. Carly turns to me furious.

"Sam! How could you?! That was totally un-called for!" She yells. Geeezzz sometimes Carly acts like my mom, no wait she acts better than my mom; my mom doesn't do anything.

"Carly chill the dork is overreacting." I say.

"No! you went too far with that!" She is seriously freaking out now. I don't know why she is making such a big deal out of this. She is beginning to make me mad.

"Carly, why do you care?! It didn't even involve you, besides you know how me and Freddie are." I say trying to make her calm down. It didn't work.

"Yea, actually I now exactly how you and Freddie are and I'm sick of it! You should at least try to be nice to him, but you don't even care! I'm tired of you ruining my day and my food. It's like you don't even care about _ME_ or our friendship!" Carly shouts. Ouch, what a low blow. Not caring about our friendship?! Of course I care. Carly is the best friend I have. Does she really not see that? I'm hurt and even more angry now.

"Well I'm sorry I'm not your **perfect friend**! I'm not like you, I love trouble and I enjoy picking on Freddie and I can not believe you would even think that I don't care about…."

"You're ruining my life!" Carly interrupts. I stand there unable to speak. Carly has never said that to me before, EVER. Ruining her life? I never thought that….. I mean she's my best friend… I …. I might be a little aggressive sometimes…. But… but ruining her life. I just can't believe that. My eyes start to water, trying to fight back the tears. Carly looks at me, she takes a deep breath and tucks her hair behind her ears.

"Sam…. I …. didn't…. ummmm…I…. we… we're out of milk, soooo I'm going to run to the store and get some." Carly says, she had tears in her eyes now. It's 9:30 at night and that store is in a shady area. She really shouldn't be going there alone. But I can't speak, too hurt and shocked, so just watch her walk out the door. I'm alone now. All alone in an empty room. Spencer is out delivering a sculpture, Freddie's changing and probably getting a tick bath, also Carly is now mad at me. Way to go Sam. Maybe Carly is right, maybe all I do is ruin people's lives. I walk over to the couch and lay down. I'll wait here until Carly gets home, then hopefully we can make up, and forget this fight ever happened. To tell her I'm sorry and she's my best friend. I'll even apologize to Freddie, if it meant that we will be good again. I'd do anything for Carly. She's the only good friend I have left.

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**Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading. The story will pick up in the next chapter. More action.**

**~ J**


	2. What now?

Author's Note : The Sentences in **BOLD** are either going to be the TV or the Phone talking. The first chapter has been changed instead of it being a week earlier it is now only 48 hours earlier because I realized a week was too long.

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What Now?

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"SAM! SAM!" I open my eyes to see Freddie yelling at me to wake up.

"What?" I ask.

"We got to go to school." Freddie says, " where's Carly?" I think back. I must have fallen asleep before she came home.

"I don't know, probably her room." I say.

"Nope. I checked, she's not there either," Spencer says walking down the stairs. Huh? That's strange. Where is she?

"You know she was talking about going into school early the other day to get some extra work done," Freddie says. Well that does sound like her. I turn on the TV and begin searching for my phone in between the couch cushions. Where is it? Stupid phone.

"Oh my god!" I hear Spencer and Freddie yell. I was totally startled. I turn around to see them staring at the TV. I turn up the volume.

"**Breaking news. Last night around 9:42 pm, three men walked into a local grocery mart on the corner of Thistle and Mill road…." **Oh no! that's the mart Carly went to last night! Oh please let this be a nice news report like the men donated money to help a charity or something. Panic begins to rise up from inside me.

"…**. the men suddenly took out guns and fired shots into the air. They demanded the money out of the register and stole some food. There was only two other people in the store at this time, the clerk and an unidentified, about 15 year old, girl…." **CARLY! No…. No… No… NO it could be anyone right?! I mean Carly should have been on her way home by then. Oh please!

"…**. This is the footage from the mart's security camera, it is seen that the girl begins to call someone, when one of the men spot her. At this time the cops are on their way and the men hear the sirens. They panic and in order to ensure their get away they grab the girl and throw her in the trunk of the car…" **Holy ham!

"… **now if anyone can identify the men or the girl please contact the authorities, they are already starting a full investigation and trying to insure the safety of the girl." **They begin to show the tape. Oh no! I see Carly , she's walking slowly towards the milk. She looks so sad. Spencer and Freddie turn to me, my eyes begin to water, but I can't turn my head away from the TV. The men come in the store. Carly is in the ice cream section now. Oh boy, Carly only eats ice cream when she's really really really upset. Look what I've done! Carly get out of there! Shots rang out, my heart is racing, following every movement on this tape. I see Carly whip out her phone and begin dialing. One of the men grabs her, I can tell she is screaming now. The tape has no audio. Which is stupid, how are we supposed to figure out who did this if we can't hear what they are talking about! The TV turns off. I turn and see Spencer with the remote and on the verge of tears.

"I…. ummmm… I gotta go down to the station….. And…ummmm…" he says between tears and breaths. He walks out the door. Poor Spencer. Carly's his baby sister and I should have never let her go to that market alone! Urggghhh you're so stupid! The worst best friend ever. Tears start to roll down my cheeks.

"Sam. Sam are you okay?" I hear Freddie ask. He puts his hand on my shoulder, I quickly shrug it off.

"Me?! How could you be worried about me when Carly is out there with three crazy men with GUNS!" I shout. Freddie is taken back. I see tears forming in his eyes too.

"Why was Carly there so late anyway? And why weren't you there with her? Huh? Probably too lazy!" He shouts with a mixture of sadness and anger in his voice. It was my fault, everything was. I can't… I can't even… No Carly! I'm so sorry!

"When… when you left yesterday we got in a fight," I begin to tell the story holding back the tears. There is no way I'm going to cry in front of Freddie. "It was a big fight, Carly said some things that really hurt me, and then she said they were out of milk and I know that I shouldn't have let her go alone okay!? I KNOW THAT, but I couldn't speak or move, so I just let her go and now THIS! I can't… I…" I have to stop there before I completely lose it.

"Okay, look we will find her. Alright, we will use iCarly, help the police, try to find out who did this, and we can call…. Wait a second. That's it!" Freddie begins to smile like he thought of something amazing.

"What?!" I ask.

"Who did Carly call?" I look at him weird, not really understanding.

"On the tape it showed Carly beginning to call someone." He checks his phone, when I remember my phone! I begin to throw the cushions off the couch. There!!! I see my phone. One missed call and new voicemail. Why didn't I wake up to this. Urggghhh this keeps getting worse,

"Freddie!" I shout, " I have a new voicemail from Carls!" I call my voicemail and put it on speaker. The computer voice comes on. **'You have one new message. Message sent yesterday at 9:44pm. *Beep* Sam!'** I hear Carly's voice come across the phone, she is breathing quickly. **'Hey!' **I hear a man's voice come into range, **'Ahhhhhh!' **Carly screams. My heart drops. **'SAM!'** is the last thing she screams before the line goes dead. Freddie and I look up at each other, both unable to speak. Oh no, what are we going to do now?


	3. In this Together

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. I love reading them and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also I would have posted this sooner, but the 'login' was down on fanfiction so I could not sign in.**

In this together

'**SAM!'** is the last thing she screams before the line goes dead. Freddie and I look up at each other, both unable to speak. Oh no, what are we going to do now?

I close my phone. I don't even know where to start with this. I'm known for trouble, but this is insane. I should have been there, I have to find her.

"I should have been there," I say more angry at myself than anyone else.

"Sam even if you were there, there would have been nothing you could have done. If anything both of you would be missing right now." Freddie says, almost like it was a good thing. This is so far from a good thing right now its not even in the same galaxy.

"Exactly!" I shout. Freddie looks at me confused. "If I was there, Carly wouldn't be out there all alone! If I was there I could have fought off those men or protected Carly or SOMETHING!" I shout, more angry than before.

"Enough!" Freddie yells, "Knock it off!" I look at him. What is he talking about?

"Knock what off?" I ask.

"Your whole tough girl act. Look Sam I know you are pretty tough, but those men were more than double your size and they had guns! You wouldn't have been able to do anything." That's not true. I could have…. Well… I can… I should have. Urghhh stupid Freddie, I could have done something, I know it. Carly doesn't deserve this, any of it. She doesn't deserve to be taken, she doesn't deserve a friend who doesn't wake up to her phone call screaming for help, and I most defiantly don't deserve her. Carly deserves better, someone better than me.

"It should have been me," I whisper.

"What?" Freddie asks, not hearing what I said or maybe hoping that what he heard was wrong. I look straight at him.

"It should have been me," I say. Freddie's expression drops, like he can't believe it or almost as if he wish I didn't even say it.

"Sam, you can't say that…."

"Why not! It's true." I interrupt him.

"No, it's not." He says calmly, "It shouldn't have been anybody, alright! Though it was somebody and it's awful that is Carly, but we can't change that, we can only help to find her before it's too late." Before it's too late…. I don't even want to think about that. It will NEVER be too late and I will never stop looking for her.

"We better call the school and tell them that we are not going today," Freddie says, has he starts to call the school.

"Wait!" I say. Freddie hangs up the phone and looks at me.

"We should to go to school," I say. He looks shocked. I expected that though. I mean he just heard Sam Puckett say she wants to go to school. I'm quite surprised at myself.

"What do you mean we need to go to school? What we need to do is to try to figure out someway to find Carly." He says.

"That's my point!" He still looks lost so I continue, "Let's print out pictures from the security tape of the men and Carly, give them to kids at school and the teachers so people will know what to look out for." I walk over to the computer. I click on Zaplook images. I type in "Thistle and Mill grocery mart robbery". Of course there are already pictures online. I find a decent one of the men and Carly. I click print for 100 copies. We need has many has we can get.

"Okay," I say, " Start circling the men's faces and writing for people to keep a look out for someone who fit's the description and circle Carly too. Then write if they find anyone who so much as fit's the description to call the police and then contact us on iCarly and our phones." I begin circling and writing down the information. Now, I know it seems pointless, but I have to just do something, anything. It might not do any good, but it's a start. I can put these around the block. In store windows, hand them to people, and…

"Sam." Freddie calls.

"What?"

He hands one of the pictures to me.

"See?" he says excitedly. He points to a mirror that is hanging behind the register. Okay, thanks Freddie for pointing out that the clerk likes to have a mirror behind him and ….. then I see it. If you look closely at the picture you can see the reflection of the car's license plate. You can only see the last two letters - Q9.

"Q9?" I say out loud.

"Yea. If we have the last two letters of the car that then men drove off with Carly we can tell people to keep a look out for the car and we will have a better chance of finding them." He says.

"We should tell the police too." I add. I'm normally against telling the police anything, but I know that they can search their computers for all residential cars with the letters Q9 in the license plate. Look, I know what you are thinking, it's ridiculous to think this would even help. I mean half the time cops do not even seem to care, but I'm not going to sit around waiting for someone else to think 'Hey maybe we should check the security tapes'. Stupid.

"Spencer is there now, I'll call him and let him know." Freddie says and starts to dial Spencer's number.

"Hey Spence. Look Sam and I started printing out pictures of last night to use as flyers to tell people to look out for Carly and the other men; and we noticed in the picture there is a mirror that reflects the last two letters of the license plate on the car that the men drove off in." I hear Spencer start screaming on the other end. I can't make out exactly what he was saying but it something along the lines of ' You guys are genius and you guys rule'.

"So the last two letters are Q9. So tell the police to search the computers and we are going to put this on iCarly and tell everyone we know." Freddie says and hangs up the phone.

"Spencer says that this is going to greatly help the police try to catch who did this." Freddie told me. Yeah, so the cops say. That is if they ever do anything. See how frustrating authority is?

"I sure hope so." I say. At least now the police have something else to go off of. I can't believe Freddie saw that and none of those lousy cops did. I guess the dork being really smart comes in handy.

"Nice call." I hear Freddie say. I turn to him. Nice call? He was the one who saw that. Why is he giving me credit?

"What do you mean? You are the one who saw the license plate." I tell him.

"Yea but it was your idea to print out the pictures, I would have just…. Actually I don't know what I would have done, so this was all you." He says. Wow Freddie has never complemented me before.

"You know you might be a pain and lazy, but you really come through when people need you, especially your friends." He tells me. I begin to smile. No one has ever said anything like that to me before and to hear Freddork be the first one to tell me, it is kind of nice.

"Thanks, now come on let's go to school." I say and walk out the door with Freddie. Huh. Weird I never thought that I would ever say that sentence in my whole life, but I would go to school for the rest of my life for Carly to be safe again.

AT SCHOOL

Freddie and I were passing out flyers at a million miles per hour. Every kid I saw I handed them a flyer and told them to keep an eye out for Carly and the men also to contact us as soon as they have any information. Not sure how much information high school students could find, but I don't care. Though most kids at our school already knew about what happened, it didn't stop us. I have been getting a lot of pity from people like, 'I'm so sorry' or 'I heard about what happened are you okay?' Am I okay? Seriously is that all they can say. Of course I'm not okay! And I don't need their pity because nothing they say helps find Carly.

"Sam." I see Freddie walking towards me, he has no more flyers in his hand. Maybe he ran out, but he had a lot left when I last saw him in the English hallway.

"Hey Freddie, where are all your flyers?" I ask.

"One of the secretaries took all of them and Principal Franklin wants us in his office NOW." He says. Urgghhh I don't have time for this. I grab Freddie and head towards the office. When we get there Principal Franklin is at his desk, he looks angry, there is also two cops in the room as well. If this is about when I loosened the bolts on the cafeteria tables the other day, so that when someone put food on it the table would collapse, I really don't have time for it. Doesn't anyone understand!

"What's wrong?" I ask. Principal Franklin takes a deep breath and holds up one of our flyers.

"This is what's wrong." he says, "You guys can not go around and pass out flyers like this! This is the police's business."

"What! You have to be kidding me!" I yell. Freddie grabs my arm to try and calm me down. The police's business! No no this is way more Freddie and my business than it is the police's. They don't even know Carly, they don't know anything. To them this is just another case, but to me, Freddie, Spencer, and everyone else who knows Carly it is everything.

"Sam you can not go around trying to take this situation into your own hands. It's wrong and it's not your place." Principal Franklin says. Not my place. Who is he to tell me where my place is!

"Now I can have you two expelled for the illegal distribution of criminal photos, I mean you two can be arrested from withholding information from the authorities." Principal Franklin looks at us. I look over at Freddie and surprisingly he looks mad. I thought he would look scared or something since he was just threatened to be expelled.

"We didn't withhold any information," Freddie says, "We called Carly's brother Spencer and told him about the license plate."

"It doesn't matter, the fact is that you two are handing this information out to kids. Kids whose parents probably do not want them looking out for dangerous criminals." That's it. I'm done, this is ridiculous. I don't care! It's not illegal distribution, the photos are ONLINE! The whole freakin world could see the "police's business". We are not kids, this is what the real world is like! And don't care what other parents want there children to know or not to know because this is the truth.

"No!" I shout, "I don't care what you do. Expel me, tell me what I did wrong, it doesn't matter. Do you even care! You have no idea how much this hurts me or Freddie or Spencer and I'm not going to sit around and wait for someone else to find her 'In time' and maybe the kids here should see these photos to open their eyes! To show them that their little world isn't perfect and maybe they will work to help because there is no way I'm going to act like everything is okay and that Carly's fine; because I don't know that Carly is fine and I am defiantly not okay!" I storm out of his office and head for the doors.

"Sam wait!" I turn and see Freddie running after me.

"If you are here to tell me not to go and to listen to them then…."

"No. I'm going with you." Freddie says. Wow, he isn't afraid of being expelled or arrested. Who is this kid? I'm glad not everyone is just going to sit back and watch this happen.

"We are in this together ," he says. Oh god thank you, that is exactly what I needed to hear right now. That I'm not alone on this and not everyone is giving up. I smile and before I can even think, I pull him in for a hug and wrap my arms around him.

"Thank you," I whisper into his ear. I'm not going to quit, ever. I break the hug and Freddie looks at me almost embarrassed, his cheeks are slightly red.

"Let's go find Carly," I say as we walk out the doors.

**- J**


	4. Sneaking Out

Sneaking Out

"You ready?" I ask Freddie. He seems tense.

"Yup," he says, not too convincing. We are having an emergency iCarly webcast. I thought that this way we can tell everyone about Carly and the men. Hopefully, the more people that know, the better chance we have at finding Carly. Stay positive right?

"Look Freddie, we are going to get in a lot of trouble, I mean the police are not going to be happy so….."

"Sam, I'm fine, I've just never broken the law before." He chuckles and picks up his camera.

"Hey guys." Spencer walks through the door. His eyes are puffy and red, he has been crying a lot, ever since….. As tough as this has been on me and Freddie, it's even worse for Spencer. Carly is his little sister and with their dad at sea, Spencer has always been in charge. Carly is Spencer's responsibility, to care for and protect. So Spencer feels like he has failed. It has only been half a day, yet it feels like months seen I've talked to my best friend. Time plays tricks on you. I can't even imagine how it must be for Carly.

"Spence, what are you doing up here?" Freddie asks.

"I know you two are going to show the robbery photo on iCarly tonight." He says.

"Look we know that it is illegal since it's out of the police's jurisdiction , but…."

"Which is why I am going to show the photo and if the police get angry, I will take the blame." Spencer informs us. No, that's not right. Freddie and I are underage, the worst they could do is put us in juvy or community service, but they could put Spencer in jail.

"Spencer, there's no way. You could be arrested." I say.

"It's better me than you two. You guys are just kids, going to juvy or something would ruin you. Plus you guys almost got expelled trying to help, now it's my turn."

"Okay…. Ready in …. 5.…4.…3...2..." Freddie counts down, like he has done dozens of times before. I glance over to my left, where Carly usually stands, there's no one there.

"Hi, I'm Sam and to my right is Carly's brother Spencer." I say, not happy and cheerful like Carly and I normally start off the show. Freddie switches to the B-cam.

"And I'm Freddie." I take a beep breath, here we go.

"Okay, well you can see that Carly is not here and ummmmmm… well that's because…." my voice gets caught in my throat, I can't speak. I've told and heard this story a dozen times already, but now announcing it to people all over the country just makes it all too real. Come on Sam pull it together. You are strong, stronger than this. Oh please, please we have to find her.

"Sam, I'll take it from here," Freddie says, I wipe my eyes, holding back the tears. My mom has always told me Puckett girls never cry, it shows weakness. I can never cry around my mom or show my emotions because frankly I think she just doesn't care, so I've taught myself to bury my feelings and hide my emotions. Keep it inside, so even if you are breaking on the inside, to everyone else you look strong; but that changed when I met Carly. I could share things with her, tell her about my past and she told me about hers, we were there for each other, I can laugh and cry with Carly, she is my family.

"Carly's been taken. She was at a grocery mart when men robbed the place with guns and they took her, so that they could have a safe get away." Freddie says. Yeah, took her for a safe get away, if I.. no when I find them, they won't be getting away. Freddie's voice starts to crack at the end. He's really torn up over this, we all are. I have to be strong, for Carly, for Spencer, and for Freddie. I put my hand on his shoulder, I expect him to shrug it off like I did to him earlier, he doesn't.

"Now we have a photo from the robbery, showing the men and my baby sis, Carly." Spencer tells the iCarly fans, "Now if you have any information on the men or have seen a car with the last two letters of the license plate being "Q9" please contact the Seattle Police Department and also tell us at . Even if you are not sure, just tell us anyway. Anything can help." I click a button on my remote and the screen comes forward and shows the image. After we say goodbye and tell everyone to be on the look out.

It's been three hours since we told everyone about what happened. We haven't received any helpful information. A lot of comments saying "I'm sorry, guys" or "Poor Carly" or "I'll be on the look out" or my personal favorite, "You guys look so sad". Really? You think! You know I never knew some of our fans were so idiotic. Spencer is pacing back and forth telling Freddie to refresh the comment page every 3 seconds. *Ring Ring* Freddie's phone starts ringing, he looks at the number.

"Area code is 703." He says. Huh. That's not Seattle's area code.

"Answer it." I tell him.

"Hello?" Freddie says into the phone. "Yes, this is Freddie and Sam and Spencer are here too." What's going on? Urrgghhh who is he talking to. Does someone know something about Carly?

"Really? No, that's great!" Freddie says to the mystery person on the other line. **"I need paper and a pen." **Freddie mouths to us. Spencer and I start rummaging through everything. It's hard to find anything in this apartment. I find a half broken pencil and a crumpled piece of paper under the couch. I hand it to him. I can feel every nerve in my body tense. My mind is asking a million questions at a time.

"Yes…yes…is that with two 'R's'?….. okay," he is writing down information. Mongery Motel in Kent, Washington. Kent, Washington is about two hours from here.

"Thank you so much. Did you inform the police?….. Okay thank you…. Bye."

"Well?" I ask excitedly, yet still nervous.

"That was the Mongery Motel's manager, he said that he had three men check into his hotel last night and he could swear that he saw a 'Q9' in the license plate." Freddie says. He swears? Well is he sure? I can't argue with the reliability now, it's the only "lead" we have.

"No way! So are they still there? Is he sure? Where did they go?" I start asking questions quickly.

"He said they checked out about seven hours ago." What! No! they could be anywhere by now! Just when I thought this was good news…..

"Okay, let's go. I'll drive and we will get to this motel and go from there." Spencer says. *Knock Knock* I wonder who is here. Spencer opens the door. Oh chizz! …. Three cops are at the door.

"Spencer Shay, you are under arrest for releasing confidential information to kids over the internet." One of the cops say, while another is putting handcuffs on Spencer. I am about to go off on these cops, but Freddie held me back. The information is ALREADY online! How is nobody getting this?

"You have the right to remain silent and…." the cops say while taking Spencer out the door. The third cop turns to us, putting on his best sympathetic look. Yea right, he's going to tell us he is sorry and they are doing their best.

"Look guys, I know this is upsetting to you and I can assure you that we are doing everything we can to find you friend." Liar! If that was true you would have found her already.

"Well, you're sure taking your time!" I yell.

"Sam don't." Freddie says, giving me a warning glance. Whatever, I haven't listened to Freddie before and I'm not starting now.

"She's been gone for over 27 hours now and you don't even have any clue to where she is!" I yell.

"Well do you?" the cop asks. Wait what? Don't they know about the motel? I look over at Freddie, he didn't seen surprised, which means he knows the motel manager hasn't called the police yet.

"No. No we don't." I say. Good idea about not telling them? Who knows, this isn't up for debate.

"Alright, well we need to ensure that you two don't interfere with the police's business anymore, so we are stationing two officers in this apartment." What! You have to be kidding me! We need to go get Carly, not be babysat by two dumb cops!

"You two are not allowed to leave this apartment and to make sure you two don't get any clever ideas. You girl go up to the third floor and boy go into one of these bedrooms." Are they allowed to do this?

"Hey, you can't tell us what to do!" I yell. I look over at Freddie, he mouths **"What are we going to do?" **Oh man. What _are _we going to do. We have to get to Kent before the men are too far gone. **"I'll think of something." **I mouth back. Two officers walk in.

"Okay, the girl can follow me and the boy go with my partner." One of the officers ordered us. I begin to follow him up the stairs, I look down the hallway to see Freddie being put into Spencer's room.

"Stay here." the cop orders as he puts me in the iCarly studio. Okay Sam, think of something come on. How do you get away from two cops in the apartment, while trying to get Freddie and get out? Well it is already 11 o'clock at night, the cops have to start relaxing soon and then they will let their guard down. I just have to wait.

FOUR HOURS LATER

It is now 3 in the morning. I suspect the cops to be downstairs, since the one that was guarding the studio door left and hour and a half ago. I've stayed up waiting and planning a way to sneak around the cops, also I have excuses incase I get caught. I head out the door and creep down the stairs, making no noise at all. I peek my head downstairs. I see the cops sitting on the couch, watching some late night soap opera. What nubs. I continue down the stairs and begin to turn into the hallway. When I hear one of the cops start to get up. I quickly run and hide behind the Bottle Bot Spencer made. He makes his way over to the fridge and gets a glass of iced tea. He sits back now on the couch and these are the cops that are trying so hard to find Carly? Please. I wait awhile before I get up and go again. Finally I reach Spencer's room. I open the door and see Freddie on Spencer's bed, halfway asleep.

"Freddie." I whisper.

"Huh? What? Where?" He says when I disturb his sleep. "Sam, how did you get in here?"

"No time to explain," I say. "We have to get to Kent."

"Sam how are we going to do that? We can't drive, Spencer is in jail, and there is no way my mom will….."

"We can take a train." I interrupt.

"That costs money." He says. Geeezzz Freddie way to crush all my ideas. I think about that and look around the room.

"Well, Spencer just delivered a sculpture." I say.

"So?" Freddie says. You know for being so smart, he sure can be really oblivious sometimes.

"So…. He would have gotten paid. So look around, he has to have some money lying around." I start looking in drawers and under clothes. Freddie gets up and starts looking too.

"Sam, I found some!" Freddie yells.

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I tell him. Man I hope the cops didn't hear that. I walk over to Freddie.

"It's 86 dollars and 17 cents." Freddie says.

"Well that should be enough." I say.

"Wait Sam how are we going to get out of here?" He asks. That's right! The cops are on the couch, there is no way we can get out the door. There has to be another way.

"The fire escape!" I say excitedly. We can go down using the fire escape and walk to the train station.

"Okay," Freddie says. We walk over to the window and open it. Freddie goes out first and I follow, closing the window behind me. We reach the train station in about 15 minutes and we get on the train to Kent, Washington. Here we come Carly, just hang on.

"Sam," Freddie calls, I look next to me where he is sitting. "You should try to get some sleep." It's true I haven't even closed my eyes once since I heard the news. I just can't, I was sleeping when Carly called and maybe if I wasn't we could have a better idea where these men are. Sleeping just ruined everything and I can't miss out on anything else because of it.

"No, I'm fine." I say back. Freddie sighs and leans back to close his eyes. He stretches his arms out and puts one around me. I don't know if he noticed or was even aware that he did that, but I really don't mind. Within five minutes he's fast asleep. He looks so peaceful.

Next stop Kent, Washington.

**End. I hope you all enjoyed reading this. I thank you for all the reviews.**

**~ J**


	5. Fighting

Fighting

Next stop Kent, Washington.

Man. It feels like I've been sitting on this train forever! I never realized how long waiting can feel when you are in a hurry. We should be there any minute. I hear someone whispering "Hey. Hey." I look across the aisle. Two guys, about my age are staring at me. They wave. I remember seeing them get on the train about 30 minutes ago. Urgggghhhh they are creeping me out. I am so not in the mood.

"Hey baby, what's your name?" one of the boys ask. It was obvious that they were out enjoying "late night activities". I scoff and turn my attention back to the passing scenery outside. The train starts to pull into a station.

"We have now arrived at the Kent station. Please wait until the train comes to a full stop before exiting your compartment." the train conductor announces.

"Freddie. Freddie, we are here." I say and nudge him to wake up.

"Huh?" Freddie mumbles. He opens his eyes and removes his arm from around me.

"Oh sorry." He says, he face is red again.

"It's fine. C'mon lets go." I say. We stand up and start heading for the door. Right when I am about to pass the guys, they stand up, blocking my way. I clench my fits, they have five seconds to get out of my way, or else.

"So where are going in such a hurry, cutie?" Cutie? I almost gag, that's it! Who do they think they are talking too?

"Look we don't want any trouble." Freddie says. Speak for yourself, wimp.

"Hey loser, did we ask for your opinion? I'm pretty sure that your girl can answer for herself." the other guy says. _Your_ girl! Do these morons actually think that me and Freddie are together? I would laugh if I wasn't so pissed. I would never ever…You know what, that has nothing to do with Carly. All I know is that was strike three. With all my might I lunge forward and punch him right in the face. I give the other a threatening glance, but before I can punch him, Freddie grabs my hand and pulls me off the train. We continue walking along the platform for a few minutes, when I realize Freddie and I are still holding hands. I quickly let go of his hand. We look at each other for a moment. I have this strange feeling in my stomach, maybe….. Oh wait…. Nope, just hungry.

"Why did you pull me away?" I ask. Changing the attention back to the fight instead of mine and Freddie's hand holding action.

"Sam we didn't have time for you to pulverize those guys, plus we could have gotten in trouble." He says.

"So?" I say. I'm so used to trouble and we have broken so many rules/ laws in the past 35 hours than I think I will…. No wait…. Than I think Freddie will ever break in his whole life.

"So…. Trouble equals cops." He says. Oh yea, if the cops got involved they would probably ask for our parents, then the cops in Seattle would find out we snuck out and then we would never find Carly. Don't you just hate the system?

"Plus you could have gotten hurt…. It looked like the guy you punched was about to get up and hit you back." Freddie says. Does Freddie care for me? He doesn't want to see me get hurt….. Nah, he probably needs me to protect him when he gets scared. Haha, yeah that's it.

"Yea well they had it coming to them. I mean did you hear what they said and what they called you! They were such jerks." I say in a slightly angry tone.

"Of course I heard Sam, but that still….. Hold on." Freddie looks at me and smiles, "Did you hit him because he called me a loser?" My expression drops. Did I? I mean Freddie _is _a loser, dork, dweeb, but I am the only one who is allowed to call him that. There is no way I am going to tell Freddie that, he would get the impression that I care about him and after dedicating my whole life to prove that wrong, I'm not changing now.

"Psssshhhh no." I say, not convincingly at all.

"You did!" Freddie shouts, "Sam Puckett stood up for me! I never thought I'd see the day!" People in the station are looking at us now.

"Shhhhhhhh, Freddie." I say. He turns to me with a huge grin across his face.

"Look don't get so full of yourself, Benson. I hit him because he said that I was your girl. And that was the last straw, there is no way anyone can say that to me and not get hit." I say in my "I'm better than you" voice.

"Uh-huh. Sure Sam." Freddie says. I glare at him.

"Whatever lets go find this motel." I say and begin walking to the information booth.

"Hi, do you know where the Mongery Motel is?" I ask the lady. She says it is about a half a mile down the street.

"Okay, thank you so much." Freddie says, "It's not that far, we can just walk there." I know me walking? Hey, you do crazy things sometimes. I mean I don't care. We start walking down the road. The sun is beginning to rise, casting a pinkish- orange glow all around. The start of a new day, wishing that this day will be better than the last, hoping Carly hasn't given up, we are so close. The motel comes into sight. Please make this be the right way to Carly, we can not afford anymore dead ends. We walk through the doors and look around the lobby. It is very old-fashioned, kind of haunted looking to tell you the truth.

"There's the check-in counter." Freddie points to a little counter in the corner. We walk up to the desk and the worker behind lifts his head up from his computer screen.

"Welcome to the Mongery Motel. How can I help you?" He asks.

"We need to speak with the manager." Freddie says.

"Okay hold on one moment." the employee says and walks into another room behind the desk.

"You think it is really them?" I ask Freddie.

"I hope so." He says back. Yeah, me too.

"Can I help you?" a man in his early forties walks out.

"Yes, we spoke on the phone. I'm Freddie and this is Sam, you said you saw three men check in here a bit ago with the license plate 'Q9'."

"Oh yes. Well if these are the men you are looking for, I have to say they are probably long gone." He says. NO! He has to have some idea as to where they went! This can not be happening!

"Well, did you know where they were heading?" Freddie asks.

"They took off heading east, I think. I must say though they shouldn't be too hard to find again." Roy, the manager, says.

"What are you talking about?" I ask. I don't have time for games.

"Well if they are the men from the security tape, I don't think they have any clue what they are doing…. At kidnapping I mean because usually kidnappers don't stop at a motel only two hours from where the took the kid, you know?" Roy says. Okay, whatever that was not that helpful, do you have any information we could actually use, moron?

"That does not help!" I yell at him.

"Sam, calm down." Freddie says, "Do you have security cameras in the parking lots here?"

"Why yes we do, there is one, but I'm not sure if it would see the car. It is very old." Roy says. Yeah so is everything else in this place.

"Can we take a look?" Freddie asks.

"Mmmmmmmm….. I guess you can try." Roy says and leads us into the back room. You know for someone that may have just found a kidnapped girl, he does not seem too thrilled. We walk into a room with cabinets filled with video tapes and a small TV screen.

"The tape from the other day should be somewhere in that file cabinet." Roy points to a cabinet on the left. He stares at us for a moment then walks out and leaves us in here. Creepy. I walk to the cabinet and open the drawer. Suddenly the drawer breaks and all the tapes go on the floor. Great, that's just great. These don't even have the dates written on them! How are we supposed to tell which one is from the other day?

"Oh man, this is awful. Geeezzz Sam I thought you were disorganized, but this is insane." Freddie says. I sit down on the floor next to the fallen tapes.

"They don't even have dates on them." I say. This is just marvelous. What if this isn't even the right car? Then we will be wasting even more time. What kind of manager doesn't label their security tapes?

"We need to watch them. We can fast forward through the tapes and see if we spot the car." Freddie says, grabbing a tape from the ground. This is going to take forever! Unfortunately it is the only plan we have. Freddie puts in the first tape and we begin.

I hate this. It has been over four hours now and we have jumped from tapes from three weeks ago to three years ago! I'm so exhausted, but I have to push myself to keep going, for Carly. I hand Freddie another tape and I am organizing the tapes on the ground. God, Carly where are you? My mind begins to wander back to the night Carly and I fought.

"_You should at least try to be nice to him, but you don't even care!" _

I care. I do! You have to believe me.

"_It's like you don't even care about ME or our friendship!"_

No! Our friend is the greatest thing I have in my life.

"_You're ruining my life!" _

I know alright! I KNOW! I'm sorry! Oh Carly I'm so sorry. My eyes begin to water, yet again. I am not even trying to hold them back now. Tears fall down my cheeks and I sniffle. My breathing becomes more rapid, I just what to scream and cry. I need Carly. Freddie turns around, he sees me struggling not to break down.

"Sam? Sam, are you okay?" He asks, his voice is full of concern.

"Yeah. Fine." I answer, my voice wavering. I stand up and hand him another tape. "Here." I say. He is just standing there watching the tears stream down my face. He looks shocked. He has never seen me cry before, well at least not for real.

"Sam…." He says, his voice slow and quiet.

"Freddie, please not now. We already know this, all of this, is my fault. So can we just continue looking…" I try to steady my breathing, "….looking at these tapes."

"Sam, please this isn't your fault." He says, calmly and even more firm.

"Yes, it is! I fought with her right before and now she's been taken and we can't find her. Oh god Freddie what are we gonna do? I can't lose her, she's all I have." I can't take it anymore. I break down into tears, I lean forward and clutch on to Freddie for dear life. I sob and my breathing picks up. I just want to hit something. I can't ….. I….. Freddie wraps his arms around me.

"Shhhhhhh…. It's okay Sam. Shhhhhhh" He says in a comforting tone. He is gently stroking my hair. I would normally kill him for even coming close to me, but I didn't care this time.

"It's all….mm- my faullllltttt….. I should have…. I …." I mumble between the tears.

"It will be fine, Sam we will find her." Freddie says. I'm so sad and angry and lost. I begin hitting Freddie in the back, lightly though. I just needed to hit something. I except him to pull away and say owwww or something, but he doesn't he stays there, arms wrapped around me, holding me up.

"I know." He says, "I know….. Shhhhhhh."

I pull away after what seems like forever and I look at Freddie, so much care in his eyes. I wipe my eyes, my breathing slows, I sniffle, trying to calm back down.

"Ummmmm…." I clear my throat, "Thanks and I'm sorry for that."

"It's okay, Sam." Freddie smiles and chuckles lightly, "I'm actually surprised you kept it inside for this long. I wanted to break down the moment I heard, but I ended up waiting until I was in Spencer's room last night. I cried like a baby." He says. I smile at him. Starting to gain control and feel a little better.

"It's no good to keep it all inside you know." He says. I know. What sucks is that now I know all those stupid clichés are right. You really don't know what you have until it's gone. Be careful what you say to people cause it could be the last thing you get to say to them. And yada yada yada…..

"Yeah." I say quietly, "So anyway the tape." I hand Freddie the tape. He sits back down and starts fast forwarding through it. Man, we are almost to the end. Another failure. And then…..

"STOP!" I yell. Freddie pauses the video. The picture is so bad, but I can swear that car has a 'Q9' on the license plate.

"Can you zoom right there?" I point to the TV screen. I can hardly make anything out.

"Wait, let me see if I can re-settle the pixels so the image can be clearer." Freddie says. Blah blah blah…. His nerd talk. He re-focuses the screen and the image is now crystal clear. Huh, impressive.

"HN2FPQ9." I say. Q9!

"Well it says 'Q9' but we need to make sure that it is really the car with Carly." Freddie says. How are we supposed to do that? And I remember that I still have the picture from the robbery. I pull it out of my pocket and hold it up to the screen.

"It's are the same car!" I yell with excitement. The cars' insignias matched . Same car, same license plate, same men, same Carly. It has to be.

"Wait, how are we going to find them?" I ask. Just because we have proof that they where here, it doesn't help us with where they are now.

"Ummmmmm….. Well." Freddie says, while thinking of a solution, "I've got it!"

"What?" I ask.

"Well at all hotels you need to check-in and when you do some hotels require that you give them your license plate number…."

"Wait. They would not use the real car number." I say interrupting him.

"You never know, Roy said they don't seem like they know what they are doing, so it is worth a shot." Freddie says and starts typing wilding on the computer. He connects to all the hotels and motels in Washington. He enters the plate number into the data base, searching.

"We got something." Freddie says, "It looks like a car with that license plate checked into the Garden Inn Hotel about nine hours ago and…. Have yet to check out!" Finally, some good news!

"Well, lets go. That hotel is not too far from here." I say. It looks like it is only an hour or two away. Freddie and I walk out of the back room.

"Did you find anything?" Roy asks. Yeah, and we would have found it a lot faster if you were organized!

"Yes we did. The car you saw is the car with our friend. I searched the computers and it says the men checked into the Garden Inn Hotel and haven't checked out yet." Freddie says.

"Garden Inn, you say? That's not too far from here." Roy says, "Do you guys need a ride?" Well, yeah actually. I mean there will be security guards at the train stations and the cops back at the apartment have to have realized we are gone by now. Not to mention trains take like double the time to get to where you're going. Still I don't know if we can trust this guy.

"Yea, but…." Freddie says.

"Okay then, lets go." Roy says, "I just need to go tell my wife and kid." He walks over to a woman and a little girl. He is speaking with the wife, then he picks up the little girl and walks back towards us.

"We are picking up a stray." Roy says, "This is my daughter Maddie, she loves car trips, so she is going to tag along."

"We have money to give…." Freddie says.

"No. No. I don't want your money. I want to help because I know that if my friend or my little girl went missing I would want someone to help me, just to help." Roy says. I want to believe that some people are just kind- hearted like this, but something about this guy is not sitting well with me; but I don't have time to question about this. Carly is the one in danger here.

"Sweet, lets go." I say. We walk out and into Roy's car. Maddie gets buckled into her car seat and Freddie and I sit in the far back. Roy starts the engine and we are off. I now realize how tired I am. Just sitting in this car, fighting to stay awake. My eyelids feel so heavy and I begin to shut them. I'm not very comfortable. I bring my feet up on the seat and stretch out, resting my head on Freddie's shoulder. Much better.

Don't worry Carly, I'll find you. No matter what, I promise; is the last thing I think before drifting off to sleep.

**This is my longest chapter so far, at least I think it is :]**

**I really liked writing this chapter, so I hoped you liked reading it.**

**- J**


	6. Hide

**Thanks For all the Reviews!**

Hide

I slowly begin to wake up, I know we should be there by now. I try to open up eyes, but I'm still too tired to fully open them. I hear Roy and Freddie talking.

"So you must really care about her." Roy says.

"What? Who? …. Sam? No we are just trying to find Carly…. I mean we don't even like each other… we…" Freddie says defensively.

"Hey chill kid." Roy says, "I was actually talking about Carly in the first place."

"Oh yea of course." Freddie says, sounding totally embarrassed. "you are so stupid, Freddie." I hear him mumble to himself. Well finally we agree on something. Why did Freddie even think Roy was talking about me in the first place?

"I mean you two have come a long way to find this girl." Roy says. Of course, I'd do anything to find Carly. It doesn't matter how long it takes.

"Yea. We will find her, I know it and I know that Sam would travel to the ends of the Earth to find Carly." Freddie says. It's true I would. It is nice to know that Freddie knows it too.

"Well here we are." Roy says. I sit up and open my eyes pretending that I had just woken up. Huh, the ride took a little longer than expected.

"Thanks." I say and get out of the car, with Freddie right behind me.

"Good luck and be careful now." Roy says and drives off. Yeah still gives me the creeps.

"Well he was….. Nice." Freddie says. I look at him.

"He was creepy." I say.

"Whatever he drove us here and he wanted to help." Freddie says.

"Yea, but we probably could have gotten here faster by train or something, he drove like a grandpa." I say. We walk through the doors of the Garden Inn Hotel. Wow, this place is fancy, chandlers, expensive furniture, bell-hops, decorative carpet, well these men sure are spending the money they stole. Then again why would they check in to a dinky motel the first night then come here? That doesn't sound right, but Roy said that they didn't look like they knew what they were doing.

"There's the counter." I spot the desk across the lobby, walk towards it with Freddie following. The man behind the desk looks at us strangely. I know why, Freddie and I don't exactly look like we would belong here.

"Yes? May I help you?" The man, George, asks. Well he actually made that helpful question seem very rude. I can get the vibe that he doesn't care.

"Yeah, we are looking for our friend…" Freddie says.

"Room number?" George interrupts.

"Well we don't know, but we were hoping…." Freddie a little less friendly than before.

"Name?" George interrupts again. Well you know if you even listened to a thing Freddie is saying and stopped interrupting him, you would know we don't have an answer to any of those questions.

"We don't know, but the men…" Freddie tries to say quickly so that George couldn't interrupt him, it doesn't work.

"Then I can't help you." George says, "So if you will kindly…."

"Will you stop interrupting him!" I shout. Everyone in the lobby turned to us.

"Our friend was kidnapped by three men who we know checked in here a few hours ago and we need to know if they are still here." Freddie says without any interruptions. Thank goodness.

"Do the police know about this?" George asks. Does it look like the police know? What are we going to say. If we say yes, he will call to confirm with the police and if we say no then he will call the police, either way we would not get the information to finding Carly.

"Look can you just tell us if they are still here." I say.

"I'm sorry but that is classified information and I am not allowed to….." George says.

"I don't care what you are and are not allowed to do, we need to find our friend!" I yell at him. He is taken back by my outburst.

"Look you are not with the cops, you have no real information on these men, and you are just two kids, so I am going to have to ask you to leave." George says.

"We are not leaving. We came here all the way from Seattle, almost got expelled from school, snuck away from the cops that have no clue what they are doing, watched security camera tapes for FOUR hours, just to find out that the men who kidnapped our friend checked in here, so can you please just tell us where they are!" I yell. This guy really does not understand all that we have been through to get here and if he thinks that just by asking us to leave now, that we will. He obviously does not know me.

"How long did it take you to make that story up?" George asks. I just stare at him. "Cause there is no way you kids did all of that and now you are disrupting the guests….. SECURITY!" I tense up. I turn around to see a security guard walking towards us.

"Run!" I yell and push Freddie towards the door. We run across the lobby and out the doors.

"Stop right there!" I hear the guard shout at us. We start weaving in between cars through the parking lot. We are about to make a run across the street, when the guard jumps out in front of us. Oh not good, not good. Shoot shoot, what now? I turn and begin running into the only thing ahead of me, the parking garage. Geezzz they must get a lot of customers to have a parking lot and still need a parking garage. Oh come on stay focused Sam.

"Okay, Freddie, I say we hide behind some of these cars and wait for the guard to pass us, then run back out." I say at a million miles per hour. I'm out of breath. I don't get a response, I turn around ask Freddie what's up, but he is not there.

"Freddie? Freddie?" I whisper around the garage. He could just be on a different level… I mean this thing is like 4 levels high. I start looking around and under cars, staying out of sight. I don't even see the guard anymore. I walk down to the ground level. Where are you? I hear footsteps. I run and hide beside a car. Please be Freddie. My heart starts pounding. I glance through the window of the car only to see a security guard, but it is not the same one as before. Oh great now there's another one. He is walking towards where I am hiding, I'm trapped. Think, Sam think. He is closing in on me when…

"We have the young boy in custody, the girl is still outside last seen running in the parking lot. All guards please return to the hotel security room." the security guard's walkie talkie announced. They caught Freddie! Why do I always have to be the one to rescue him.

"On my way." the guard says. He turns around and walks back to the hotel. Awww man, now I need to save Freddie too. I swear people ask too much of me. I wait a few minutes before I slowly exit the parking garage. I start walking around the hotel, knowing that there has to be another way in. Urgghhhh all of these doors you need a room key to get into. I can't pick a lock if none of the doors have locks and you can't very well pick a room key scanner now can you. Wait, someone is coming. I hide behind some bushes on the side of the hotel. A man is walking up to the side door, looks like he just got back from playing basketball or something, he is covered in sweat. Gross. He swipes his room key and walks through the door, I jump out from the bushes and race to the door, just barely getting my foot in between to keep it open. I step inside and quietly shut the door behind me. Okay, now find the security room…. Wow, great plan Sam, it's not like anyone will recognize you or is even looking out for you. Right, okay new plan. I walk into one of the hallway bathrooms. God, I look awful. My hair's a mess and I look like I haven't slept for two days, even though that's true. I take my hair down from it's usual half up, half down look, I comb my fingers through it a few times. Carly always loves when I keep my hair down, she says it frames my face better and it adds more fluff to it. I always think it makes me look too girly. I wipe away the smudges under my eyes from crying and sleeping, I take off my sweater and throw it under the sink. Better, at least now I can kind of pass off as someone who might be staying at this fancy- pants hotel. Step one down, step two find the security room. I walk along the hallways, trying to find this security room, so far I have seen 9 maids closets, 4 stairwells, and 2 electrical rooms. Nothing that led me to Freddie. Why does this hotel have to be this big, it is so pointless. I am about to turn the corner when I hear people coming. I run into the stairwell, listening to them.

"No, the boy is not speaking, but the man at the desk said that they told him they were from Seattle. We called the Seattle police department and they said they had two runaways, that were trying to take their friend's kidnapping into their own hands. They are sending officers down here to get the boy and find the girl." one guard says.

"Do you think those two kids are actually on the right path to finding their friend?" the other asks.

"I doubt it. The police have found no evidence that the men even drove this way." he responds and they continue down the hall, no longer in my hearing range. I step out of the stairwell and continue down the hall. I know those men were here. We have proof, but then again who would believe two kids and security tape footage that we don't have. I stop and see a man, kind of detective looking, walk out of a room and lock the door. He begins walking towards the lobby, when I think he is far enough away, I walk towards the room. I try to look inside, but the window is are tinted. I get down on the ground, take out a bobby pin from my hair, and start to pick the lock. C'mon, please work, this door is so stubborn, I jiggle the handle until I hear a click. I stand up and slowly open the door, getting ready to run down the hall incase this isn't the right room.

"Sam!" I hear someone say. I step inside the room and turn around. Freddie! There he is. His hands are handcuffed behind a chair.

"How did you get in here? Why are you here?" he asks.

"To answer your first question it's cause I'm awesome and to answer your second is because…. We are in this together remember?" I say, he smiles. I walk over to him and start to try to un-lock the handcuffs. This is going to be a challenge.

"I'm sorry, I should have ran faster or I could of….." Freddie begins to apologize.

"Freddie, it's fine. It's not your fault the Benson family lacks athletic genes." I tease.

"Yeah. Have you ever picked handcuffs before?" he asks.

"Nope." I say.

"Well, then how do you know what you are doing?"

"I don't." I say flatly. I have never tried to un-lock handcuffs before, but I think I almost got it. There, the handcuffs fall to the ground. Wow, I'm actually impressed with myself. There is no way that should have worked.

"Impressive Puckett, guessing that runs in the family." Freddie mocks.

"Look we don't have a lot of time, that guy who left should be back here soon." I say.

"Oh yea." Freddie walks over to the computer, "That guy was Detective Burke, he called the Seattle police and they are on their way here. He would not even listen to me when I tried to tell him the information we know, he said save it cause we are in tons of trouble anyway."

"Man, I hate people, especially cops. They never listen, just cause we are kids." I say. Freddie types away at the computer, entering codes and a bunch of non sense that I can't understand.

"Okay, Hotel registry. I can search by the license plate….. What is it?" Freddie asks.

"HN2FPQ9" I say without even thinking about it.

"Whoa, you memorized it?" Freddie asks, though it was more of a statement then a question. I just throw him a look and he types in the number.

"Okay they were here… but they checked out about an hour ago." Freddie says, disappointed. Of course, they are gone. I mean they can't make this easy on us, can they.

"Well does it say anything else. Like where they went?" I ask.

"No, but it does show the phone record of their suite….. And the last call was…. An incoming call number 703-422-5055." Freddie says. I punch the number into my phone, while Freddie cancels out of everything. I walk for the door and open it slowly, I check down the halls, no sign of anyone.

"It's clear. Lets go." I say. Freddie and I walk down the hall and turn the corner, heading the way I entered. I call the number that was on the computer. It's ringing and ringing…. Will someone please answer! And then someone does. I can't believe it. The phone drops from my hand onto the ground, I stand there furious and speechless. I freaking knew it!

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**~ J**


	7. Fish

_**Hey! Sorry this took a bit of time to update. School was a killer this week, so much homework.**_

_**ENJOY!**_

_Fish_

_The phone drops from my hand onto the ground, I stand there furious and speechless._

I can not believe this! How could this…. I mean…. so much for TRUST! He is so dead.

"Sam?" Freddie turns around to see me standing there. "Sam? What's wrong?" I can't even respond, I just point to the phone. Freddie reaches down and picks up the phone.

"Hello?" Freddie says. I'm just waiting for it. "I'm sorry ca- can you repeat that?" he asks. 5...4...3.. "The Mongery Motel?" he yells and hangs up the phone, at first I think he is going to throw it at the wall. He turns to me, "I can't believe it."

"Well, believe it." I say coldly. Freddie looks at me, he can tell I'm angry and disappointed.

"How? Why? Why would Roy even call us about the car, if he just went off and called to warn the men anyway?" He asks.

"To keep an eye on us? Think about it Freddie. That's why he let us waltz right into his motel and watch the tapes. He probably put them out of order too and then he drove us here slower than your mom drives! I did not even think that was possible. He could have been paid off or something!" I say. Freddie still looks confused. How does he not get it? It makes perfect sense.

"Then why did he wait until we actually found out where the men were staying. Why not call the men right when we got to the motel? So that they would have a four hour head start instead of one?" Boy, he asks a lot of questions.

"He probably thought we would never find the car, so why bother the men if they had nothing to worry about." I say.

"I'm sorry Sam. You were right. We should have never trusted Roy." Freddie sincerely says.

"It's fine, it's just how are we supposed to find Carly now?" I ask. We have no more clues or anything to go off of. The only one that would know something is Roy and he will never tell us. What do these men even want? They don't even need Carly anymore! They never needed her!

"Well- ummm we could….." Freddie stutters, trying to find an answer.

"Excuse me?" someone asks from behind. Oh no! we are caught. Well duh… Freddie and I have been in this hallway for a few minutes now. Stupid Sam, why didn't you wait until you were out of the hotel and far away from the cops before you called. I turn around expecting to see another cop and instead I see the total opposite. An old lady is standing behind us. Whoa, man she is old, even older than Ms. Briggs, that is defiantly a record. We so don't have time for this.

"Yes?" I ask.

"Are you the two kids the police are after?" the lady asks. Yea, like we are going to tell you.

"What…. No" I say, dragging the words out.

"That's a shame. I was hoping I would find them." she says. Okay, weird. Why was she looking for us? I glance to Freddie, he looks even more confused.

"Why were you looking for them?" Freddie asks. Trying not to spill that we were actually the kids, but I think the old lady is catching on.

"It's just, the men they are looking for were in the room right next to mine and I know something that might help." she says.

"Really? What is it?" I say and suddenly get very excited. I will take any clue or guess I can get from anyone right now.

"It's nothing and you are not the kids looking for them anyway. Am I right?" she asks while smiling. She knows. Man, she is smarter than she looks. She is good for a grandma.

"Urrrghhhh…. Actually we kind of are." I say. Freddie nudges me like what are you thinking. Truth be told I don't know what I'm thinking, but at this point I don't care about keeping it a secret; especially if this lady knows something.

"I see…." she says, "well they were checking out, when I was in the lobby for breakfast and you know from the moment they arrived, I could tell something was off about them. I mean they were just so….."

"We get it! Can you please tell us what you know?" I say interrupting her crazy rambling.

"Oh yes, well when they checked out, I over heard them talking out going to a shipping dock, not to far from here." She says. Shipping dock? What are they up to?

"Where?" I ask.

"About 20 minutes from here. Morris Shipping Harbor is the official name for it." she says. Great! Now we at least have a place.

"Thanks so much." Freddie says.

"I hope you find your friend." the lady says. I hope so too. This is turning into a wild goose chase.

"Me too." I say. I really really do.

"She's lucky you know, to have such great friends like you two." she says. I can not help but to smile. Carly is worth it and it is nice to know that someone views me as a great friend. It's also good to know that there is at least one kind- hearted person in this world. That actually cares,

"Thank you." I say.

"Attention Garden Inn guests, we have a missing teenage boy that has escaped from police custody. We will now be locking all doors and securing the building for a moment. Please remain calm, the boy is not dangerous, we just need to find him." the hotel intercom announces. Not good! I turn to Freddie and we both immediately begin to run down the hall at lighting speed. We are just about to reach the door, when I realize…. My hoodie! It is still in the bathroom. Carly gave me that hoodie.

"Wait!" I yell, Freddie turns around, " I forgot something!" I turn back around and run into the bathroom, I quickly grab my hoodie and run back down the hall.

"You couldn't have left it?" Freddie asks.

"No." I say. We reach the door before it got locked, we run down the sidewalk, and across the street. No police in slight. We start to slow down once we are out of view of the hotel. I'm out of breath. That was intense….. Now where is this shipping dock? I hear Freddie start laughing, I turn to him.

"What?" I ask. He just stands there laughing like crazy. Has he lost his mind?

"It's just….. This is turning into quite an adventure, isn't it?" he asks, even though I know it is rhetorical, I answer anyway.

"Yeah, I guess it is." I chuckle and the more I think about it, Freddie is right.

"Like Bonnie and Clyde." he says. I look at him. He does know that Bonnie and Clyde robbed people right? But in a sense it is true. Two friends together on a wild adventure and I'm glad Freddie is with me. Though it would be better not to have to go at all, but hey, you can't change everything.

"Okay, now on to our next problem…. Where is this dock at?" I ask.

"I don't know, but let's go into that little bakery and ask." Freddie says. We walk up to the bakery and Freddie reaches for the door, I expect him to walk in, but he doesn't. He pulls the door open and steps out of the way, holding it open for me. I glance at him, like what are you doing? He just smiles and tells me to accept that someone has done something nice for me and walk in. I walk up to the lady at the counter and Freddie wanders off somewhere else.

"Hello, how are you today?" the counter girl asks. Horrible.

"Fine," I say, " by any chance do you know where the Morris Shipping Harbor is?"

"Why yes I do. If you walk a block down there will be a bus stop and bus 313 will take you right there. It is also a large fish market as well." she says. Alrighty then.

"Thanks." I say, " C'mon Freddie let's go." I turn around to see Freddie standing right behind me with a giant cinnamon roll in his hand.

"Hungry?" He asks with a smile. Now that I think about it, yeah I really am hungry.

"YEESSSS" I say dragging it out for no reason. He chuckles and hands me the roll.

"Thanks Freddie." I say.

"Well, I know how much you like to eat." He says. I like to eat? Smooth Freddie. I just smile and take a huge bite of my cinnamon roll and Freddie bites into his bagel. We walk to the bus stop and wait on the bench. I just finish shoving the last piece of my cinnamon roll into my mouth. Freddie just stares.

"You know I think that is record time." he says jokingly.

"Yup, it was delicious. I did not even know I was that hungry. Then again if you put any food in my face, I'll eat it." I say. We sit in silence for a moment. "You think she is at the dock?"

"Truthfully Sam, I don't know, but I hope so." Freddie says. Yea, _hope_. That's all we have left isn't it?

"I know she's there. I can feel it, it's almost like I can sense her and we are so close." I say. Freddie looks over to me.

"I never knew you cared so much. About anything. You have a lot of passion for the things you care about Puckett." He says. I can't help but blush.

"Thanks Freddie, that actually means a lot and I care about all my friends, even if I don't show it. Just know that if they ever seriously need me, I'm there." I say. Freddie looks like he is about to respond when the bus pulls up. We stand up and walk on the bus.

25 minutes later

That bus ride was so boring. I tried to fall asleep, but the more I thought about how close we were to finding Carly, my nerves kicked in and I got so nervous and excited that I could not sleep. Freddie and I begin to walk across the dock. There are a lot of people here. Everyone is selling or buying fish and the smell is awful, there are hundreds of fish stacked along the docks.

"Which way?" Freddie asks.

"This way." I say and point to the left. We turn away from the fish market and are heading towards the shipping crates. There are less people over here. Freddie and I have been looking at the people and all the cars, checking their license plate. Nothing so far. We turn the corner ad reach a dead end. There is a large gate blocking our way from continuing down the dock.

"Can you pick the lock?" Freddie asks holding the chained lock on the gate.

"No, I left my bobby pin at the hotel when I rescued you." I say. Wow, that's really smart Sam. Freddie sighs.

"Okay, I'm going to go see if there is another way or if I can find something to use to open this gate." Freddie says, turning around and heading back toward the market. There has to be way.

"Hey Sam!" Freddie yells, I turn around, "Be careful." I smile at the thought of him caring.

"Don't worry." I say. He turns the corner. I stare back at the gate, examining the lock. I can't wait. I step back and look up the gate, it is about 14 feet, not bad. I grab a hold of the gate and begin to climb. I reach the top. Okay now getting over is going to be a challenge. I swing my foot over and balance myself, I climb down and land on the other side. Okay all good. I continue walking down the pavement, seeing a few cars, but not the one that I need. The street is coming to an end and I think I am out of luck when I see it. Sitting beside a building is the car from the robbery! I walk slowly up to the car, the men are nowhere in sight. I tap on the trunk of the car and don't hear anything. That means she must be inside. I can't just walk through the door and ask 'hey how's it going? By the way you kidnapped my best friend.' That will not end well, so I walk up the building's fire escape. Stair by stair my heart starts racing. I glance through the windows and no sign of Carly. Then I peak through the next one and I think I see something. The room is so dark it is hard to tell. I softly knock on the window and the figure looks up surprised. I gasp, CARLY!

**I hope you enjoyed!**

**~ J**


	8. Run

Run

_CARLY!_

My heart is racing, filled with fear and excitement. I start knocking softly on the window to make sure she sees me. I can see happiness, yet slight worry in her eyes. I bend down and tug up on the window, trying to open it. It is stuck, I pull harder. Carly starts shaking her head, like she is telling me to stop. To leave her. Tears start to stream down her face, I stop pulling on the window and watch her with my hand pressed against the glass. I mouth "What?" even though I know she can not respond. If she thinks I am going to leave her now, she is wrong. I move out of the view of the window and begin to call Freddie.

"Sam?" He asks, his voice sounds frantic.

"Yeah, Freddie what's wrong?" I ask.

"I'm on my way back. I think I found another way around the gate, we can…."

"I climbed over it." I say interrupting him.

"You what? Sam, I told you to wait and how did you even…"

"Freddie please!… I have never listened to you before and I knew Carly was back here… and she is!" I say, my voice still at a whisper.

"What!" Freddie shouts.

"Look she is in this abandoned building, tied up and gagged. She has a little cut above her eyebrow, I tried to get in, but the window is stuck." I say.

"Okay. Okay… look Sam it is too dangerous to try and get in that room, I am going to call and inform the police." Freddie says.

"You mean you want me to do nothing!" I say as angrily as I could without being too loud.

"Sam please, you found her and now we can get the police to arrest the men and get Carly out without the chance of you or her getting hurt." Freddie says, almost begging. I just huff and hang up the phone. I peek back in the window, Carly is still sitting there. She looks so helpless. Urrrggghhh I need to get he out of there. I need to get her out of there right NOW! Stupid cops, stupid men, stupid Freddie. Everyone is just telling me to wait, but sometimes you don't have time to wait. I know Carly does not want to see me get hurt. I can see it in her eyes, she has been through enough. I walk back down the steps, heading towards the gate, so I can show the police where to go. I reach the ground and suddenly the doors to the building open. I freeze and hide against the side of the building.

"Okay time to go." someone says.

"We have been here long enough, people could catch on." Another says. I peek around the building, to get a good look at the men. No! You can't leave!

"Leo," the first man points to, "go pack up and then get the girl, we are leaving in ten." Carly!

"Hey Travis, what are we going to do with that girl anyway?" Leo asks.

"Yea true, it is not like we need her anymore." the third one says.

"Well, let's keep her until we get far enough away from Washington, then we can dump her." Travis says.

"Then no one will find her in time. She will probably die….. And I don't feel right about that man." the third one says.

"Stop worrying Jason. It will be fine, now go!" Travis orders. They are going to leave Carly out in the middle of nowhere! I can't let them get away, not this time. I run back up the stairs so quick, jumping three at a time, that I end up tripping and hitting my head against the edge of the metal step. I want to scream, but I know I can't. It takes every nerve in body to control me. I push myself back up. I touch my forehead, there is blood, a lot, and it is definitely going to bruise. It hurts so bad, but I push the pain aside and continue up the stairs. This is not about me, it is about Carly. I reach the window, Carly looks up, her expression drops. I know she is wondering what happened, my forehead must be worse than I thought. I grab the window and pull up, it does not budge. I try again and again, my arms are giving out. I'm getting frustrated now, I just want to break the glass. I glance at Carly, I know she knows that I am beginning to worry and that I am getting tired. I drop down to my knees, I place one hand on the frame of the window, the other on the glass, with all my strength I push up on the window. I start to hear cracking, like wood moving against wood. I push the window with every bit of strength I have left, it begins to open. I grab the bottom of the window and push it the rest of the way up. I let out a sigh of relief. I go through the window, the room is filled with boxes, not sure what is in them. I quickly walk across the room to Carly. She tries to talk, but it is all muffled. I untie the cloth that is gagging her. She takes in a deep breath.

"Sam? Oh my god, are you okay? Wha- what are you doing here? How?" She says asking questions at a million miles per hour.

"I'm saving you." I say simply. We don't have time to talk, we need to get out of here now. I try to untie the rope around her, but it is too tight.

"Sam, leave me. You need to get out of here." Carly says with much worry. I know she is scared. I stand up and begin searching the boxes for something to cut the rope. The first box is filled with old, died out flash lights and other scrap metal. The next is filled with old metal parts too, nothing sharp enough to cut the rope with.

"Sam, please. You have to get out of here." Carly says, she is crying now. My head is throbbing, making it hard to focus.

"No, I'm not leaving you here." I say quietly and continue searching through the boxes.

"Sam, please…."

"I am NOT leaving you here!" I say and look straight at her. "Get it through your head Carly, I'm not going anywhere without you." Carly gives a weak smile. I open another box. I start pushing away the dull metal, I have almost reached the bottom when I see something. I reach in the box, the other metal scratching my hand on the way, and pick up what seems to be an old pocket knife. I pull the blade out, it is all rusted and chipped. Man, this thing is ancient. I go back to Carly and begin to cut the rope. It is cutting slowly, but at least it is cutting. Come on.

"Sam it is taking to long, you have to hide or leave or something." Carly says moving around.

"Hold still." I say. Almost there. Got it! I unwind the rope from around her.

"Let's go." I say. Carly just stares and then she grabs me into a strong hug. I don't want to break the hug, but I know that I have to. I push Carly back slightly.

"Come on." I say. We rush back to the window, Carly exits first, then I do, closing the window behind me. We go quickly, yet quietly down the stairs. We reach the ground. We are so close….

"Which way?" Carly asks. I point to the left.

"Down there and a few more turns and we will reach a gate where Freddie is at." I say. Carly stops.

"Freddie is here too?" she says. Like she is surprised that anyone even came for her. I guess it does sound impossible. It actually is pretty impossible that we found her.

"Of course, now let's go." I say. We walk along the side of the building, praying we are not seen. I look around the corner, the men are not there. I can't let them leave. I know Carly is safe, but they can't get away with taking her. I get an idea. No no no…. that is too risky Sam, you can not do that! After debating it for like half a second, I know I have to do it.

"Carly I want you to run around that corner, behind the building and wait for me there." I say.

"Wait for you? What are you doing Sam?" Carly asks. She looks at me with her pleading eyes.

"Carly please." I say. She nods and runs cross the alley. I wait and then I turn to my right heading towards the car. God, I hate this car. I hate it so much, for all the problems it caused and the men. If they think that they are going to get away with everything they have put Carly, Spencer, Freddie and me through in these past 3 days, they are going to get a wake up call. I take the rusty knife out of my pocket, I reach the car, and bend down hiding out of view of the door, just incase. I take the knife and thrust it hard into the back tire. I feel the pressure burst out of the tire, but unfortunately the old knife ends up breaking with it. I wanted to get at least two of the tires, but this will hold them. I stand up and run to where Carly is hiding. I am close to the corner when I hear one of the men shout, "The girl is gone!" I hold my breath. Now running at full speed, I try to keep as quiet as possible. I'm so close. "There! Running over there!" I hear another man shout. Oh no! I turn the corner and grab a hold of Carly pulling her down the alley.

"Sam! What happened?" Carly says, trying to get a hold of her breath. We are running faster than I have ever known us to run before.

"They saw me!" I say. I glance behind me and see the men in the distance, chasing after us. We have to lose them.

"Carly at the next break I want you to turn to your left then make a short right and the gate where Freddie is at will be right in front of you." I say. I can distract them.

"No Sam!" Carly tries to argue.

"The police will be here any minute, I can hold them off. I need you to get to safety!" I say.

"Sam…." She says.

"Carly please!" I yell. Right at that moment Carly takes off left and I pause for a few seconds to make sure that the men see me, and I take off right. My head is killing me and I'm getting dizzy. It is hard to run straight. I hear the men behind me. "Stop!" one yells. Yeah, right. I reach the end of the alley and now I am in a shipping dock with giant crates all around. I take off and hide behind one.

"Where did she go?" one asks.

"She as to be here somewhere…. Split up. Find the girl or the new blonde one, I don't care which. We can't let them get away." another says. I stand still trying to catch my breath, my legs are giving out. I start sneaking around the crates, trying to find a way to get out safely. Come on Sam, stay strong, you got this. I try to think positive and not focus on how much pain I am in. I make my way down the dock, hoping that I'm far enough away. I saw two of the men go in the opposite direction, but I still don't know where the third one is. I hear a sound behind me, I whip around and begin walking backwards carefully. I am stopped when I feel something press into my back, along with the sound of a click.

"Where do you think you are going?" I turn around to see Travis, who at this point I have known as the leader. His gun is facing me and he has a twisted smile on his face, it makes me cringe.

"Where's the brown haired one?" He asks. I do not answer and I put on my best tough face.

"Not telling, huh?" He mocks. He is to cocky for his own good because just then he pointed his gun away from me and it was my only opportunity. I picked up my leg and kicked the gun from his hand. It went skidding down the dock. I think I pulled a hamstring. Oh man, it hurts. I turn to run, but he is too quick. He grabs my arm and slams me against one of the metal crates. Pain erupts throughout my body. I begin kicking wildly and snarling at Travis. He really gets me mad.

"Awwww…. What's the matter Princess? Can't get away?" He jokes. This guy is sick and right at that moment I get a direct kick into his stomach. He keels over and loosens his grip, with all my might I push him back just enough for me to break away. I begin to run towards the gun, knowing that it will give the other person the upper hand. Well duh. I don't get very far before I am tackled to the ground. I start kicking, punching, and screaming wildly. He has me pinned to the ground. I'm struggling now.

"Get off me!" I yell. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a knife. He brings the knife to my neck.

"Where's the brunette?" He yells at me. My breathing becomes more rapid. What now?

"Where?" He shouts and applies more pressure to the knife. I'm afraid if I more one mussel it will cut me. I just stare at him with so much hate. I don't even realize how scared I am because I am so angry.

"Last chance. Where. Is. She?" He asks, enunciating each word, like I am deaf or something. I am not going to tell him. He snarls and punches me in the gut.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" I yell out. I want to curl up in and ball and wait for the pain to pass, but he keeps me pinned to the ground. Lying there in pain, fighting not to pass out from exhaustion. I want to cry, it hurts so bad, but I'm not giving him the satisfaction. He would think I'm giving up, that he had won. There has to be away out of this mess.

"Is she worth this? Is she?" Travis asks, "Just tell me where she is!" I stay silent for a few seconds.

"Yes." I say, he now seems more confused than angry.

"Yes?" He says.

"Yes, she is worth it." I say loud and clear.

"Why you!" He yells and punches me full force in the stomach. It feels like the wind has been knocked out of me. It is hard to catch my breath, as I begin to whimper. I start wildly kicking again, like a little kid having a fit. He starts to laugh. I am close to giving up. He has won. He has the knife, I'm pinned down, and I don't even know where the gun is anymore.

"You should have stayed home little girl." He says. I close my eyes, just when I think that this is the end, I hear something click. It is probably just my imagination, but then I hear a voice.

"Get off her." the voice says. I know this person has the gun. I try to open my eyes to see who it is, but I'm too worn out. I feel Travis take the knife off my neck and stand up.

"Kid, you don't know what you are doing." Travis says.

"You'd be surprised. Drop the knife." the voice demands. I hear the knife fall to the ground. I'm trying to stay conscious. Everything hurts.

"Sam? Sam wake up!" I hear the voice shout. I know who it is.

"Freddie?" I mumble. I slowly open my eyes, squinting to adjust to the light and everything is coming into focus. I see Freddie with the gun, pointing it at Travis. Freddie is shaking. Well I bet he has never held a gun before, he looks nervous and scared. I start to hear faint sirens down the dock. The police! Geeezzzz it is about time.

"You aren't gonna shoot me," Travis says, smirking. He sure is cocky. Freddie glances at me, he is close to tears. He looks extremely worried, so I must not look good.

"You kidnapped my friend, made us chase you down, now you were about to kill Sam. You have no idea how much you put us through." Freddie says with hate dripping on every word. I have never heard Freddie so angry. I can hear the police sirens clearly now.

"Freddie don't!" I say. Before I never would have thought that Freddie could even consider pulling that trigger, but I have never seen him like this.

"Yeah Freddie don't" Travis mocks. This guy is so stupid, but he is not worth it.

"Freddie no. He- he is not worth it." I say, my voice only at a whisper. I close my eyes again and touch my forehead, it is all numb now. I don't hear anything besides the heavy breathing of Freddie and Travis. I bet the police can't see us behind these crates. Suddenly I hear movement, the sound of metal striking against something and the someone, I'm hoping Travis, fall to the ground. I open my eyes, I see Freddie throw the gun to the side and Travis on the ground unconscious. I try to push myself back up, but I don't have the strength. Freddie rushes over to me and leads out his hand. I grab it and he carefully pulls me up. Right when I stand up, my knees give out, Freddie puts his arm around my waist, catching me. I just stare at him, speechless. He pushes my hair out of my face and touches the cut on my forehead. It stings, I inhale deeply trying to lessen the pain. He sighs and glances at me. He places his hand on the back of my head, stroking my hair again, and pulls me into a hug. I place my hands on his chest and rest my head on his shoulder. I feel safe, overwhelmed with joy. We did it, everything is okay.

"Thanks." I whisper, "You did good for a nerd." I smile at him. He chuckles.

"And you didn't do too bad yourself for an obnoxious, ham-loving bully." He says. I blush.

"I mean it. You are a true soldier, Sam Puckett." He smiles, oh god is he trying to embarrass me. I just nod my head, knowing he knows that I mean thank you. I hear tires screech behind us.

"Freeze!" I turn around to see two cop cars with officers pointing their guns at us. I think I have had enough guns in my life by now. I recognize one of the men. Detective Burke, the man from the Hotel, the one interrogating Freddie.

"Lower your weapons!" Burke shouts at the men. He walks towards us, while the cops go over to Travis. Oh no, hear it comes. I know we are in a lot of trouble. Burke just looks at us.

"I'm sorry." He says. Wait… what?

"I should have believed you." He says looking at Freddie. "You two got guts that's for sure." I look over at Travis, the cops are placing handcuffs on him. I wonder when he will ever regain consciousness.

"What about the other two men?" I ask.

"We have them. They are being taken to the station as we speak." Burke responds. Just then two more cars and an ambulance pull up. Before one of the cars even completely stop, the back door opens, and Carly runs out. I stop leaning on Freddie and slowly walk towards Carly. My muscles tightening with every step and now everything is going blurry. My head is spinning again.

"Sam!" Carly yells and throws her arms around me, keeping me in a tight bear hug. It feels so great to have my best friend in my arms again.

"Are you okay?" I ask her. All she does is smile.

"I'm fine, much better now." She says.

"Me too." I say.

"You found me." Carly says, "you are the best friend anyone can wish for." I start to tear up.

"I missed you, best friend." I say.

"Let's get you in the ambulance." She says. I put my arm around her shoulder and we begin walking towards the ambulance. I think I'm putting too much weight on Carly because she is leaning far, but I can't help it. Then I feel someone grab my arm and put it around their shoulder. Freddie. Everything is back the way it was before, well not exactly but you know what I mean. I have Freddie on one side and Carly on the other. My two best friends. Everything is the way it should be.

**Well, I hope you liked it! This is the end, but I'm thinking about making a sequel, where you find out stuff that happened when Sam wasn't there, like Carly's version, and when Freddie was alone.**

**~ J**


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